The sun rose and someone got up on the wrong side of the bed – namely, pretty much everyone. The Monks received word that their Master was in town to pick back up a loaned artifact – the Orb of Prophesy. Karma in particular was quite familiar with the orb, as she couldn’t leave things alone and constantly wanted to touch it, hence the rules of the orb mostly consisting of the phrase “Don’t touch the orb, Karma”.

As per the letter, Karma and Dharma were to recover the orb for their master from the person who borrowed it… and it turns out, the person who borrowed it is none other than Myra, the mayor of South Cormick. After much discussion (and finding out that Nocturne was away shopping), they went off to the Mayor’s office / chamber…

… only to find it completely ransacked and the Mayor utterly pissed off. Overnight, the South Cormick Tax Association (read: Sanctioned Thieves’ Guild) effectively went on strike… and also robbed the Mayor’s office blind. She was in there at the time (she sleeps and… does other things in there) and they basically went in with a distraction and ransacked the place in mere moments – signs that they had some magical help as well.

Naturally, the Orb was one of the things taken. The Orb case was there, they just took the orb out of it. Luckily, it was pretty easy to follow the thieves, as there is something a bit… wonky about that orb.

It is the Orb of Prophesies – basically, it starts spouting out prophesies to anyone that has the case open (OOC, think Bajoran Orb from ST:DS9). They’re not even necessarily good ones, but it does cause you to feel like you’re in said prophesy. Now imagine a completely uncovered orb going through the densest part of town and, well, you have a few thousand people tripping balls. Finding the trail was easy. Getting to the orb, now that’s a bit harder. The box was to keep the orb’s power at bay. Karma, at this point, decides to wear the box on her head. No, I’m not making that up.

Turns out, the thieves ended up going into the City-State aqueduct system to presumably some underground lair. Only they didn’t make it that far, as they started tripping more and more then longer they held on to that orb. The party, after basically hallucinating for an hour trying to get closer, eventually reaches a large viaduct access area. Inside is the Orb, the thieves (who are currently attacking a wall), and an Otyugh (currently attacking a different wall).

None of them could see the party (they’re too busy hallucinating), so Karma decides to go over and swim to the orb, picking it up. From here, Karma gets a vision of the future. After bringing the orb back to the party, everyone else does as well… then Karma remembers to take the orb container off of her head and put the orb in it.

The visions, however, were quite disturbing, with each PC getting a very different look on things. Karma saw a battle in which Dharma was just killed, Elena unconscious, one of the deities of the campaign setting killed next to her, and another figure she wasn’t familiar with trying to talk to her. Oh, and some nasty looking elf having just killed Dharma and about to go after Karma. The deity and the unknown person both looked out of place, Karma figuring out that the other figure is some other deity (The Young Goddess, as she found out later). Karma could only hold on to the vision for a few moments before it faded, but she did notice that she was WAY more powerful in the vision than she is in reality.

Note: Galwyn was not in her vision.

Dharma saw a city under attack. Focusing for a bit, he figured out that this is his future city – the one the party is trying to build – as the entire city was up on stilts like one of their plans. A gigantic gold dragon was breathing fire upon the settlement. Then Dharma turned and saw a figure off in a distance, wearing a very fancy and peculiar white dress with a very long train that just floated behind her, as though she was walking in slow motion. Then Dharma lost hold of the vision.

Elena had a vision of a dismal landscape, a partially destroyed South Cormick. There was an execution going on and, after a bit, she discovered that the person being executed is Myra, the mayor. A mighty axe was raised and fell to her neck, having the executioner’s hood blown off from the blow. Elena then saw that the executioner was none other than Galwyn, their party member. She then lost the vision.

Galwyn, however, had the most unusual vision of all. It started out as a typical prophecy, until someone literally pulled her out of it. She was shaken to wake up by a similarly sized person – a gnome. Galwyn focused for a bit and noticed a sword across her back – Thrin’s personal greatsword. The person in front of Galwyn is none other than Brenda, and not talking to her in a mystical way. According to this vision (and there was discussion back and forth), Brenda is actually the creator of the Orb of Prophecy, having put it there to replace the Water Orb that was once held by the shrine in the clouds (that’s part of the previous campaign). More importantly though, Brenda is currently acting as Thrin – answering prayers, granting powers, the whole nine yards – while Thrin is missing. She says that she knows Thrin is safe, but something terrible may happen in a year’s time – and Galwyn is apparently one of the keys to things happening.